Once Odoo release v11, they will no longer support v8. So our hands are tied in the regard. However, I'm not sure when v11 will be released. From what I gather it's not imminent.

It also seems most likely that at least the next release of the TurnKey Odoo appliance will still contain v8. However, we will certainly be looking to move to a newer version soon.

FWIW, even when we do change to a newer upstream version, there is nothing stopping you from continuing to run your existing server using v8. Keep in mind though that the need to upgrade will grow as time goes on (post when Odoo stop supporting it) and I would argue that at some point security vulnerabilities will occur which will make continuing usage of v8 untenable. But how/if you resolve that is your call.

If you are not yet using Odoo, then I would recommend waiting. Odoo v8 will be EOL (end of life) really soon. We hope to produce an Odoo v10 appliance (we're skipping v9) sometime within the next few months, but unfortunately I can't give you a ETA.

We are currently working on our v15.0 release. Once we've released that, then even if the Odoo appliance isn't quite ready, once we've updated the build code, you could even build it yourself. At least then you can start development.

I don't have a firm ETA for the v15.0 Odoo appliance, but it should be within the next few weeks. But no promises at this point. Either way, it will ship with the latest release of Odoo v11, installed from their Debian repository.

Thanks to for flagging Flectra. I'd never heard of it, but it's good to know about. While Odoo continues to provide a decent open source version, we don't intend to drop Odoo, but we may well publish a Flectra appliance in the future as well.

We never actually produced a Odoo v9 appliance, so unless someone else has made one and is willing to upload it somewhere for you, then I don't think that will be a possibility.

Regarding making one yourself, that may be possible, but will depend on whether Odoo still provide the Odoo v9 code. The current Odoo buildcode can be found here. It will take a bit of trial and error to get it working, but so long as Odoo still provide the v9 software, it should be possible.

Having said that, unless you plan to share it with others or launch multiple copies of it, it may be easier to just start with one of our other appliances and install Odoo from scratch?

Sorry if that isn't super helpful. If you have a go and hit any issues, please feel free to post back with specific questions.

A few comments.

I wish TKL had such good branch organization:

Odoo's usage of branches makes a ton of sense because they are maintaining multiple versions. As TurnKey only maintains the latest release, there is no real value in providing multiple branches (and doing so would suggest to many users that we are maintaining old versions). So there is no value to provide a branch for every past release. Instead we simply tag the releases. In effect, this works the same as the branches that Odoo use (i.e. you can checkout the code at the tag), just there is no facility to apply any updated commits.

FWIW we do often use separate branches when we do major updates (e.g. when we do a new major version). But once everything is working and we're ready to release the new version, it get's merged into 'master', released and tagged. Then the (newly merged) development branch is deleted.

I think the big issue though is going to be around living with either V2.7 or v 3x Python. The full move by Odoo to Python 3 I understand to be in v12 and was able to use both in v11.

My understanding is that the core of Odoo 11 is written in Python3 but contains some backwards compatibility for Python2 components. But I could be wrong on that...

Python itself is making v2 x EOL in January 2020. I think it will be able to still run Python 2x programs but there will be no updates and who knows what will happen with the whole PIP mechanisms for v2.

Python2 (aka 'python' - with no version number) will be included in Debian 10/Buster (which will be the basis of TurnKey v16.x). So whilst upstream support for Python2 will end in 2020, it is anticipated that Debian will continue to support Python2 (via it's LTS program) until ~2024 (5 years after stable release of Buster).

Regarding pip, it will continue to operate as it does (i.e. with Python2) until Debian 11/Bullseye is released (long way away - probably mid 2021). It is possible that the download functionality may break for some apps as https://pypi.org/ remove old py2 apps and libraries.

Python3 is installed by default as of Debian 9/Stretch / TurnKey v15.x. And it works with pip too. If you want to use pip with Python3, simply make sure it's installed:

apt update
apt install python3-pip

Then call it via 'pip3'. E.g. to install 'some-py3-app' (imaginary program).:

pip3 install some-py3-app